Golden Sun Redux – Tolbi Chapter
Part Four: From Shadow To Shadow
The lands north of Tolbi were more or less like those the Adepts had been travelling through for months now, though the climate was noticeably warmer, even in Isaac's opinion, a difference that was reflected in the trees and other plants. There were still large grassy plains interspersed with forest, and the sorts of mountains that had always confused Isaac.
Geology wasn't well known on Weyard, but a little bit of it was built into all Venus Adepts, and Isaac felt instinctively that if great bloody chunks of rock were going to stick out of the otherwise calm and orderly land, they had better have a reason, and none were apparent.
There was indeed a reason, and while you may know it, Isaac would not learn the truth for many months, after the clash at Jupiter Lighthouse. At that moment, the aftershocks of Alchemy being sealed away were not important. The important thing is that Isaac was wondering yet again about mountains, and not paying much attention to anything else, with the very occasional exception of Mia, and even less often Ivan. He went north, in the general direction of the closest mountains. They followed.
"I'm almost certain we were supposed to be following some sort of directions," said Ivan, still following Isaac's lead, but speaking to Mia. "I mean, they may just be Tolbi guards, but they know what they're doing, and if everyone just wanders wherever they want, we can't be sure we haven't missed anything."
Mia gave him a Look, shook her head briefly, and then simply looked at the Jupiter Adept. "I think we can trust Isaac on this one," she replied. "I mean, he may be a little clueless and waffle on decisions sometimes-" she glanced at Isaac, noticed that he hadn't even twitched, and went on "-but he's also pretty good at leading, certainly better than the rest of us, not to mention courageous."
Isaac was very much in his own little world, Mia could tell, because she would have got at least some reaction to the waffling remark. Isaac seemed to take any criticism from her very hard.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you liked him," said Ivan, grinning.
"What makes you think I don't?" asked Mia, and laughed. As they continued, Ivan looked very closely, but there was no trace of blush on Mia's face. After a moment, without looking in his direction, Mia said to Ivan, "You wouldn't be thinking of reading my mind, would you?"
"I might, but apparently you're pretty well armed in that field yourself," said Ivan, discreetly sliding his hand back into his pocket. "Gifts of Jupiter indeed."
They walked onward, getting closer to the mountains all the time. In the distance behind them, Ivan could occasionally see Tolbi guards patrolling and searching the hills. Isaac was still silent, once again drawn into his head, puzzling over the whole idea of mountains for the hundredth time in his life. Just when it was getting to be unnerving again, Mia spoke up.
"What was that?" she asked sharply, sweeping the area around them with her eyes. Isaac snapped out of his reverie at her exclamation, but had no answer- he hadn't felt or heard anything, and everything looked normal.
Ivan, on the other hand, had pulled his arms a little further into his robes. "Brr. That was... weird. Sort of like wind in midwinter, but without the wind, wasn't it?"
"I didn't notice anything," Isaac replied, at a total loss. "Mia? What was it?"
"I don't know either. But it wasn't anything normal. Sort of refreshing, really. Soothing…" She sighed in a relaxed way. Ivan stared in disbelief for a moment, wondering how anyone could have enjoyed that, but before he could say anything, Mia's eyes snapped wide open and Sleet appeared on her head.
"One of these days I'm going to sew a mousetrap into a hat and get rid of their obsession," said Isaac, watching Sleet's appearance bemusedly.
"Djinni," Mia realised, snatching Sleet off her head. "Could it have been one?"
"Hard to say," Sleet replied in a definitive tone of voice. They all waited in silence for a moment, and then he realised with a little start that they were waiting for more of an answer. "Well, it certainly felt like Mercury Psynergy, but such a short pulse in a very small area means that, if it was, it could have come from just about anywhere between here and Angara."
"Can't you do something to find out where it is?" asked Mia.
"More Djinn…" muttered Ivan.
"What about us?" asked Flint.
"Yeah, what about-" Gust realised that he had just backed up a Venus Djinni, and quickly backpedalled. "I mean … what about … the other Djinn … and ourselves?" He returned Ivan's strange look for a few moments, and then broke down. "Yes, yes, all right, 'what about us'?"
"Elementally-biased weirdo," muttered Flint.
"Arrogant gloating boaster," said Gust in much the same tone.
"No, he can't do anything to find it," said Fizz, appearing near Mia's feet. "But there are four of us, and we can do something about it. Get Mist and Spritz out here."
"We're supposed to be looking for a missing person," Isaac pointed out.
"But even more so we're supposed to be saving the world, which means we need all the power of the elements we can gather if we're going to take on Saturos and Menardi again," said Mia.
"But if we're going to get Garet out of Tolbi, we also need to get some sanity back into that city, which means we need to find this apparently important guy," Ivan retorted.
"Y'know," said Isaac, in the sort of calm voice that was his standard –he probably didn't even see the argument they had been heading for- "there are three of us. Ivan, you and I can keep going, Mia and the Mercury Djinn can find out where that little wave came from, whatever it was. I didn't feel a thing."
"You're neutral to Mercury-" Flint scoffed quietly at this "-while I'm vulnerable to it and Mia… is insane."
Mia glared at him a little. "I resent that."
"You resent accurate observations?" asked Spritz.
"Remember whose head you're sleeping in," she warned with a grin.
"I do. No one's. Djinn don't sleep."
"Nor eat or any number of other things, so you've said, but you do make up for it by spending all your free time and some of your less-free time talking incessantly," said Isaac. "Are we going or not?"
"Sure. Just to get away from all these blue Djinn," agreed Ivan.
"I'll catch up with you on the way back to Tolbi," said Mia, and set off toward a good hilltop. They watched her go for a moment, then started to turn back, deciding where to look.
"There is the weirdest thing up ahead in that mountainside," announced Granite, appearing with a few sparks. Isaac and Ivan both considered the Venus elemental spirit that had just flickered out of some ethereal other-plane and onto Isaac's head, where his hair was slowly taking on the role of a sofa. And this particular elemental spirit had joined them in the backyard of a village full of people-turned trees, where it had made the rickety fence a totally insurmountable barrier by means of a Psynergy wall.
"Must be pretty dang weird," said Isaac after a moment's pause. "Show us."
"Didn't you say there was something good in here?" asked Garet yet again. Ember was starting to get annoyed. She had known her share of Adepts over the years, but usually older ones, wiser ones, and above all, ones who didn't repeat the same bloody question every three minutes.
"Yes, thank you. I've lived in this city for a considerable length of time," Ember replied. "I do know what's in here, and it could be useful. You carry two very interesting things with you, Garet."
"What? Oh, nah, Isaac's got the Mars St-"
"Do not speak such things in a crowd, you don't know who may hear you," hissed the Mars Djinni, who was still hiding in the depths of Garet's mind.
"If there's a single person in this city who knows what Psynergy is, I'll cook all the group's meals for a week," Garet offered. "Besides, what do you mean by 'a considerable length of time'? The seal in the Star Chamber was only opened a couple of months ago. You couldn't have been here even that long."
"Long enough for my tastes, surrounded by non-Adepts. But that doesn't mean I didn't learn a few things about the city. Tolbi hides secrets you don't know. I shall teach you," stated Ember.
"Great. Good. Where?" asked Garet, gesturing at the wide city in front of them. Garet (and, in a manner of speaking, Ember) stood at the top of a rise, in a sort of town square that overlooked most of Tolbi. The city was vast for Weyard, houses and other buildings stretched into the middle distance.
"Behind you," said Ember, and Garet could have sworn she laughed. Garet turned on the pale grey cobblestones and faced a large pool backing on a wall from which a massive dragonshead fountain poured sapphire-blue water.
"You would find some way of getting water into this," grumbled Garet.
"Water?" repeated Fever, excitedly, and sparked into existence, leaping into the fountain's pool with a splash. "Oh, I've been deathly dry ever since Fuchin Falls … not counting when we jumped into the Karagol … this is more like it."
"Get out of there, you little deluded maniac!" demanded Garet, in a strange voice that was both whisper and roar. "You're going to be seen, and I don't want to try to explain what Djinn are right now."
"Oohhh," whined Fever as Garet fished him out rather forcefully. Garet noted without much surprise that the Mars Djinni didn't drip at all, and was just as dry now as he would have been in the Lamakan; a little reminder that he was currently holding a fragment of the Mars Spirit's power, which meant that it would be good to get the psychopath out of sight very quickly-
"Nice kitty," said a voice by his ankle. Garet froze, then looked down and saw a girl, perhaps four years old, looking up at Fever, who was just out of her reach. He looked around, and saw that no one else had taken an interest in the Djinni.
The girl's mother and father were nearby, sitting on a bench, asleep in the sun. The girl was, if not so quick on the uptake involving the fundamental differences between cats and Mars Djinn, very clever, since her sleeping father now had his arm securely placed around a small barrel of corn. Looking further, Garet noticed a small gap on the vegetable stall right beside the bench.
Garet thought at speeds he rarely attained even in the thick of lethal combat. "Yes," he agreed, slowly but wholeheartedly. "Very nice kitty. Would you like to play with him?"
"You backstabber!" raged Fever quietly. "Let me back in the fountain!"
"Sure!" agreed the girl, wide-eyed.
"Here. You just bring the kitty back with you and stay on that bench with your parents, all right?" Fever struggled in his grip, and an unusually cautious thought occurred to him. He raised Fever back up to eye level. "Don't you dare think of doing a thing to her to get away, Fever."
"If you let me back in the water, there's no danger anyway-"
"Don't do a thing to her, Fever, I conjure you!" growled Garet between tightly clenched teeth.
Fever stopped struggling. "I'll make Mia pay for telling you about that."
Satisfied that the arcane phrase had worked -Djinn put a lot of store by such things, and in any case there might have been a sort of Psynergy behind the words- and there was no danger to the very small girl, Garet placed Fever into her eager hands and watched her rush back to the bench. He turned to the fountain again.
"Okay, what does this do and how do I make it do it?"
Mia and her four Djinn reached the crest of a high hill, and looked out across the late morning plain. Another thrill of Mercury power ran through them, and they shared a relaxed sigh.
"Where did that come from?" asked Mia, looked to the Djinn.
"Hard to say for sure," said Mist.
"I think we should triangulate," said Fizz.
"Why do you always try to solve every problem with triangles? It's like it's the only thing you can think of. Triangles, triangles, triangles," said Sleet.
"That's because I'm a healer, not an uncouth fighter," countered Fizz.
"Triangles have combat use," Spritz pointed out. "Arrows, for example." The other three stared at her. The wind blew nearly silently, and no one moved for a moment.
"Whatever, I liked that sound of that one," said Mia, and the Djinn broke out of their trance. With various comments on the lines of 'Right' and 'Good plan', the Djinn took positions around the hilltop and waited. After a full minute's silence, Mia coughed quietly and started to say "Fizz-"
"Quiet!" hissed the Djinni. "This takes concentration-" Fizz was silenced by a trio of hushing sounds from the other Djinn, and they waited in further silence. Eventually, there was another ripple of Mercury energy, and lights flashed between the Djinn, practically ricocheting from one to another with a strange sort of splashing sound, crossing with a quiet toll of a bell. Then it stopped in an instant, and they all turned to face roughly northwest.
"There," said Fizz.
"That's it," agreed Sleet.
"Got it," Mist reported.
"That way," finished Spritz. The Djinn looked at Mia with satisfied expressions. She looked back blankly. Spritz sighed. "It took some concentration, but we've figured the direction to go if you want to find out where these waves are coming from."
"Of course I do. Let's go," said Mia. She took a few determined steps before turning back. "Um… you'll have to lead."
"That's more like it. I could get used to Adepts answering to Djinn," Mist said, marching ahead.
"This is weird? Granite, it's a cave," Isaac said, gently.
"You can't feel that?" asked the Djinn, a little surprised. "I guess you guys really aren't all that attuned to Psynergy yet. There's something that doesn't feel at all right inside there somewhere. Whenever I try to focus on it, it slips away."
"Like when Mia attempted spaghetti. I hesitate to say 'made'," Ivan clarified.
"We're here because we're warriors, not because we can cook," Isaac stated.
"Just promise me we'll never let Garet make food," asked the Jupiter Adept.
"I would if I could. Okay, Granite, show us the way in," said Isaac, and the Venus Djinni stepped off his head, hopping from rock to rock until they reached the relatively smooth ground inside the cave, at which point Granite started the Venus-Djinni-walk that Isaac always tried to avoid thinking of as waddling.
Isaac and Ivan walked into the cave with the sort of fearlessness that comes from battling Krakens as a part of the job. But after a few minutes, when Isaac tripped and fell flat on his face, Ivan realised that the cave was exceptionally dark inside. Much darker than any other cave they had been in.
It was true enough that caves got dark inside. They were very nearly famous for it. But with occasional torches, which were crafted very well by expert torch-sages (or so Ivan figured it had to be) so that they could last for ages without going out, most underground paths weren't hard to follow. Inside Altmiller, the darkness was merely warded off by torches, and after about ten feet, it gathered in hordes, plunging the Adepts into absolute blackness.
"Well, this is just fantastic," grumbled Isaac, rubbing his battered shin with a sore hand. "Why is it so dark?"
"This is a cave we're talking about," Ivan replied, but he knew what Isaac meant. It was like being in a vast ocean of shadows, with bubbles of light here and there. "The air doesn't feel right."
"Sort of… It sort of feels the way sand tastes…" mumbled Isaac.
"Venus Adept weirdoes," Ivan said in much the same tone of voice.
"If it's just the two of us in here, I think we should try to avoid elemental enmity," the Venus Adept suggested.
"Meaning I don't get to make comments like 'sandstone brain'?" asked Ivan innocently.
"Right. And I don't get to crush the life out of you with a big rock."
"I like this plan."
"Any suggestions as to how we deal with the terra indistinctica?"
"If you mean the shadows, I don't know."
"Djinn can see in the dark," Vine volunteered.
"I am so not coming out there until we're aboveground," stated Gust.
"We might bring a torch with us," Ivan suggested, "but I have the feeling it wouldn't quite work like that. These shadows are really… intense." As little as he liked intense heat, Ivan found himself backing towards the only visible torch. The darkness had attitude.
"I said, Djinn can see in the dark. Well, not exactly see, we don't usually see, per se, but the principle of the idea is the same-"
"I figured you were bragging," said Isaac. "How does your sight help us?"
"Well… you could hold onto my tail, and Ivan could hold onto you, and then… what are we doing in here, anyway?" asked Vine.
"That's odd… I felt sure I ought to abhor this infernal place more…" muttered Zephyr.
"I know what you mean," said Smog. "How odd."
"Not at all," said Kite, and as near as Ivan could read expressions on Djinn, she was smiling. "One of us is in here. There's a Jupiter Djinni in this cave."
"A brother trapped in the still earth?" said Breeze, horrified.
"Sister," Kite corrected. "Deep down, though. I can't quite hear her thoughts…"
"What do you mean, 'still earth'? Continents move, you know," said Sap.
"Are you out of your mind? What could move a continent?" asked Gust.
"Certainly not the wind," Flint commented, and although it was quiet, the words echoed for a few moments. The silence that followed was a close personal friend of the darkness, had in fact grown up in the same neighbourhood as the darkness, and was about as comfortable, but quieter.
"I think," said Zephyr, in a voice that contrived to be both hot and icy, "that we should go deeper and find our fellow Jupiter Djinni."
"Fellow Djinni," Quartz corrected her, very firmly. "I don't mind a little competition, but we are all Djinn, none stronger or weaker than any other. If we insist on this sort of pointless hostility, the entire world is in terrible danger." There was another silence, this time rather embarrassed.
"I guess we should start moving, if we're going to save a Djinni," said Granite. Smog looked a little surprised at this, and coughed, which was a dead giveaway, because Djinn don't cough, as a result of not breathing, either.
"Yeah, we should," he agreed. "Um… We'll scout ahead, you guys can lead the Adepts around any tough terrain." This suggestion was accepted by the other ten, oh, and of course the Adepts themselves, who agreed to follow Vine and Sap through the darkness.
"Once again I feel like the Djinn are the heroes here, and we're just tagging along because it's awkward for them to do things like use the Catch Beads," said Isaac.
"No hands," Vine added, matter-of-factly.
Sleet led Mia quickly over the plains, hiding behind rocks and in thick clumps of grass whenever they encountered Tolbi guards searching for Lord Babi. The hills were alive with the sound of "My lord? Are you there? Lord Babi?" and similar calls. Mia vaguely wondered what would happen if one of them called 'are you there' and was told 'no'. She rather suspected the guard in question would keep walking.
"This feels right," said Sleet after an exceptionally long run. They were at the top of a hill, and Tolbi was just barely visible in the distance. It was just past noon, the high sun was making its presence known in the form of penetrating heat, like a celestial blast furnace, and there were no Mercury Djinn to be seen, aside from Sleet.
"There's a Djinni around here?" asked Mia, doubtfully.
"The Psynergy does not lie," stated Sleet.
"This is so unfair," Mia muttered, shading her eyes. "Too much clothing is roasting hot, and any less means you get sunburnt. What a twisted climate. …Sleet?"
"Yes?"
"How are we going to find a Mercury Djinni like this? Even Fizz and the others don't want to be out in this heat. Any wild Djinni would be hiding."
"Beats me. Keep still and try to feel cool and shady," said Sleet, who rather wished he could get out of the heat too. The last remark had been meant as a weak, heat-wracked sort of humour, but Mia slapped her forehead and laughed.
"Of course! That should have occurred to me already," said the healer.
"I think you should probably find some shade first, Mia," Sleet suggested, soothingly.
"Oh, stop it, I'm thinking just fine." She reached into a robe pocket and pulled out a strange stone, made of a sort of blue glass that looked very much like a large raindrop frozen in time. The Douse Drop sparkled in the sun, and then gained an inner glow from Mia's Psynergy. She raised her other hand, with the Angelic Ankh in it, and called out "Douse!"
The Ankh charged with blue light for a moment, and then it fountained upwards, exploding like a firework and turning into a very small, concentrated downpour. The dry, sun-scorched ground sucked in water better than a sponge, and while it was refreshing, Mia decided to spend a bit of time giving succour to (which, as far as she knew, meant flooding) the surrounding grass.
Every few moments, Mia turned and focused on a clump of tall grass, a bush, or a rock, blasting it with water in hopes of catching this Djinni off guard. What she didn't expect was a sudden crescendo of footsteps, followed by a leap onto and off of her head, ending with a Mercury Djinni flying through the air.
She was a different one, not one of Mia's four, though how the healer could know this (the new one looked exactly like the others) was difficult to explain to anyone who had never been allied with a Djinni. Sleet had retreated, meaning all four of Mia's Djinn were in the ether of her mind, while this fifth one had rushed into the Douse stream and was now jumping happily in the focused rain, catching drops with what Mia had always sort of thought was the Djinni's mouth.
"Oh, thank Mercury, water at last, it's baking out here, I was starting to think I was going to shrivel up and disintegrate, Spirits be praised-" the Djinni went on for some time, dancing as only a creature with feet but no legs can.
"Fizz, Sleet, Spritz, I want you standing by," Mia whispered, not moving. She waited for the three replies of 'ready', took a steadying breath, cut off the Douse Psynergy, and ran.
The Djinni turned to see the charging healer just moments before the staff came around. Those moments, (un)fortunately, were enough for Hail, who didn't feel like being interrupted just now.
"Prism!" A rough block of ice materialised from Mercury Psynergy and smashed into Mia, throwing her to the ground, and Hail took up the offensive, running toward the top of the hill. Mia rolled to a stop, quite dizzy, very cold and even more annoyed, and saw Hail focusing power.
"Ice Horn!" she called, raining frozen shards onto the crest, but they didn't seem to do much more than annoy Hail. Wishing she had left Sleet set, since Mist couldn't strike from a distance, Mia leapt up and started toward the Mercury Djinni.
A whole new reason that high ground was useful became apparent to Mia just as she reached the top, which was that when Hail cast Froth Sphere it had gravity on its side, the rush of whitewater blasting her back down, along with most of the grass (which was easily freed from the sandy, dry earth).
"I think we need a new plan," said Fizz. "One that involves less tumbling and nearly drowning on a dry plain. Possibly with our help."
"You've got a good point," said Mia. She ducked as another Prism shot overhead and shattered against the ground below. "Time for some spiritual guidance."
"I love this part," said Spritz as clouds rolled across the sun, darkening the day.
"Water Power Rise! Mia Summons Nereid!"
A minor flood rose up from the ground itself, and from nowhere -though it felt like a nowhere that was nevertheless very far away- a giant turtle surfed the waves, a great aqua-green behemoth with a shell that could repel an avalanche. On its back was the princess of the sea, the water spirit Nereid, and her eyes were as deep as the ocean. She drew her fan from her robes and snapped it open with a sound like quiet thunder, though it was as simple and threatening as the reloading of a shotgun.
Hail seemed hypnotized by the motions of the fan, which was pointed at her, palm down. Nereid's wrist twisted, the fan flipped to face up, and the water couldn't help but follow. It was a massive burst, like a wet volcano, as the sudden inundation exploded toward the sky beneath the Djinni.
At last all the water rose, like inverted rain, and disappeared into the sky. Hail looked stunned for a moment, then shook her head. "That was flippin' wet," she stated.
"Unleash Mist!" As much as she enjoyed the spectacle of summoning, Mia also knew that Mercury was ineffective against Mercury, and had taken the free time to climb unseen up beside the Djinni. Hail looked up and saw a Djinni-powered Ankh heading for her, and with her last conscious moment, said something they'd all regret.
"Drench!" Mist struck a second later, and Hail fell into a Psynergy-induced sleep, but her own attack had already begun. Mia had made the mistake of standing on the side of the hill that had already been scoured of grass, meaning that what ended up at the bottom of the hill was essentially a sleeping Hail, a dirty Mia, and a great deal of mud.
"This is unreal," she said, thankful that she had kept her head above the level of the mudslide.
"Don't try cleaning it off with Psynergy, you're tired enough already," warned Fizz.
"What's your suggestion, then?"
"Get back to Tolbi."
"Figures."
Garet had one eye closed, his tongue was sticking out, and he had not just woken up. This was an odd combination, but explained slightly by the large gold coin in his hand. People have strange beliefs about what might improve their aim.
It had been startling when the water had drained from the spring at the flick of a lever. It had been surprising when Ember had explained exactly what he was supposed to do with the Lucky Medals and the massive rings on the fountain's bottom. It had been mortally terrifying when the dragon head had stretched out for him, and rather odd, almost anticlimactic, when it dropped an Earth Shield at his feet. Another roll had given him Spirit Armor.
"That was a pretty good shot," Ember said, critically. "A little more flick and it should roll better, though. You're still putting too much arm into the motion. Just the thumb and a little wrist."
"How do you know, anyway?"
"Watching this is one of the more interesting things to do when you can't let people see you."
"I see." Garet flipped another Lucky Medal, and it rolled around for a few moments before being stepped on by one of the turtles, who were enjoying the extra sunlight.
"That one sucked," said Ember, carelessly. A bag of black fabric was deposited at Garet's feet.
"Oh, now it's taunting me. I'll show you!" he shouted, drawing a stare or two, and then flung the last Lucky Medal. It skipped off one turtle's shell and ricocheted off a crab's waving claw, rolled for an eternity, slowly toward the middle- and encountered unexpected reptile.
It was sheer luck that someone had dropped a pebble into the fountain sometime, and it happened to fall in the right space. Maybe years earlier, and if the Lucky Fountain or fate or anything else held true, this was probably the pebble's purpose. The Medal struck the stone and skipped, then landed on the turtle's shell. The turtle didn't seem to notice, wandering aimlessly around the fountain, until it stopped at the centre, turned its head, and angled just enough for the coin to fall off.
It landed with a determined clink in the precise centre of the rings. The dragon head extended, and with a metallic ringing, a sword fell out. It had a sense of drama, apparently, because the blade stabbed into the low stone platform and stood upright. Garet pulled it out without much trouble, and the handle felt somehow unnaturally cold.
"Nice sword," he commented.
"Assassin Blade," Ember reported. "A weapon with some sort of dark Psynergy that can drag a person near to death in a single strike. Very dangerous."
"Ouch!" yelped Garet, who had only tried to feel the side of the scimitar and somehow managed to cut himself. "I can tell. But it's only fair after that thing handed over a bag for the last one."
"Um…" said Ember, "this looks more like a Ninja Hood to me."
"A Ninja Hood?" repeated Garet, who was starting to realise that it wasn't a great idea to wave around a mystical scimitar of death in the city square of Tolbi.
"Yeah. Like a bag you can wear. Now, is that all the Lucky Medals?"
"I think so."
"Good. Put that thing away and follow me, there's still more stuff to do."
"Like what?"
"Ever heard of a slot machine?"
Isaac had to admit that he was impressed by how well the Djinn worked together. The Jupiter Djinn found the dead ends quickly, while Sap and Vine carefully led Isaac and Ivan through the rocky tunnels without serious injury. Even monsters seemed to dislike the intense shadows, for they met none.
It wasn't a great deal further into the strange cavern that Isaac tripped over something and crashed onto the gritty stone heavily. "Hey, what happened to warning us?" he asked, rubbing his sore palms.
"I would have. Not my fault if you can't keep track of your own feet," said Vine.
The Adepts and Djinn froze as a strange moaning filled the cavern. Isaac and Ivan whirled around, trying to find the source, but they could see no more here than any other part of the pitch-black cavern. This didn't bother them, but it freaked the heck out of the Djinn, who couldn't see anything either, and darkness didn't stop them.
"Who's there?" asked an exhausted voice. "Is anyone there?"
"Isaac, check this out," said Ivan, who was startled to notice that in the midst of shadows, he could see something. It was very faint, a suggestion of light more than anything real, and it was wrapped around a shape on the floor like ethereal gauze.
"What is it?" asked Isaac, who had stood up fully and smacked into a stalactite in this lower passage.
"A figure wrapped in Psynergetic light," murmured Ivan.
"You know what Psynergy is?" croaked the shape. "Who are you?"
"Isaac of Vale," answered the Venus Adept.
"Ivan of Kalay," the Jupiter Adept followed.
"Vale? Kalay? So far away, and knowing the secret of Psynergy…"
"Who are you?" asked Isaac, bent into a near L shape, even though it wasn't necessary. In answer he got nothing but groans of pain. "What's happened to you? And why-"
"I have not the strength to speak for long," rasped the hidden figure. "I will die, likely in less than an hour, unless you can find my draught deeper in Altmiller Cave. I must ask you to go…"
"Y'think we can trust him?" asked Ivan in a whisper.
"The guy sounds more than half-dead already, Ivan. We can't just leave him here," replied Isaac. "We wouldn't be any better than Saturos or Menardi."
"I hope we beat them, just so you can't rationalize everything with a reference to madmen. And a madwoman, of course," said Ivan, but wouldn't have left someone to die anyway, even with unknown danger involved.
"Naturally, we'll help," said Isaac, louder.
"Thank you," the nearly-invisible figure wheezed. "In the lowest level of this cave is a chamber with a seal on it. There are rocks in the floor, five of them." He took a moment to cough. "Turn the ones on the farthest left and right, and lights will appear on the wall. You must then turn the rocks that correspond to the topmost lights, but the colour of the stone is hidden-" The figure lapsed into coughing again, and was silent.
"…Did he just die?" asked Ivan, a little worried.
"I think he's just too weak to speak," said Isaac, daring to reach out and touch the oddly 'cloaked' old man. Yes, he was definitely breathing, if shallowly. "We'd better be fast, then."
"We don't know which rocks are which. For that matter, the whole story seems a bit odd-"
"Ivan, it's coming from an invisible guy. Of course it's odd. That's how you can tell it's true. Now let's move quickly. If we stick around to ask him more about the rocks, he probably will die in front of us."
"You're so cheerful underground," said Ivan sarcastically, but followed Sap after Isaac and Vine.
The lack of monsters still seemed too good to be true in Isaac's opinion, but now he wasn't going to question their luck. But after several minutes more of stumbling through the dark, he realised that there was a very good reason for there to be no monsters, more than the darkness.
The encounter with an invisible man asking for their help had driven much of the earlier argument between the Djinn out of his head, but suddenly the starting point for it rushed back as Isaac reached the bottom of strange, spiral stairs and entered a bright room. It was filled with torches, stone pillars, some of which had fallen, and from his view, was very rapidly filling with Djinni.
Djinn aren't afraid of the dark. To the right people they're a good reason to fear it, though.
"Embodiment of Venus!" she screamed, smashing headfirst into Isaac at stomach height. "Though I am trapped below a thousand tons of stone, do not think me easy prey! Squall fears no Adept, however loathsome and conniving your scheme may be!"
"Ivan, help, this Djinni's lost it!" shouted Isaac, blinking painfully in the sudden brightness and sudden tackle.
"You shall not bring reinforcements, I assure you!" said Squall, focused, and blasted the wall above the opening to the stairs with Plasma. The rock superheated and shattered, collapsing in a cloud of dust and wreckage that cut Ivan off. Isaac was trapped, flat on his back, in a room with a psychotic Jupiter Djinni that had it in for him. Things were looking bad.
"Tornado!" shouted Squall, and twin twisters, occasionally sparking with minor lightning, dashed toward the Venus Adept. Isaac was picked up by one, thrown into the other, and swung around in the grip of the wind for several moments before being dropped to the dusty floor again.
"That was just mean," he groaned, wishing that the room would stop spinning, and really hoping that the dozen Jupiter Djinn he saw perhaps three metres away were just dizziness. It was less gratifying than he had hoped when they resolved into a single Djinni who barrelled into him again at near-sonic speeds.
"You are strong indeed, Venus Adept, but not stronger than a Djinni of Jupiter!"
"No?" asked Flint, appearing nearby. "How about with us on his side?"
"…Venus Djinni," muttered Squall, startled. "…Adept, you have taken hostage Djinn?! This shall not go unpunished!"
"Oh, stop it with the bravado!" exclaimed Isaac, and drew his sword. "Unleash Sap!" Isaac struck, knowing that no blade could cut a Djinni, but that the strike would still weaken her, and Sap would restore his own health from Squall's.
"Storm Ray!" called the Djinni, but with a countering 'Unleash Granite!' Isaac deflected much of the lightning's damaging strike.
"I'd really rather not beat you too senseless," Isaac pointed out.
"You shall breathe freely only when I am dead, Adept!"
"Well, at least it won't come to that. Unleash Ground!" Isaac called on his newest Djinni, who leapt into being in the usual spirit-like fashion and let loose charges of Venus Psynergy that were drawn to Squall. They struck in a mass of sparking, and suddenly Squall found she could not move, but was paralysed by intense gravity. "Unleash Flint!" A second strike, unavoidable, smote Squall heavily, and she collapsed as Ground's temporary effect wore off.
"Very well, Adept," she gasped. "You are victorious through your evil ways. Slay me."
"No thanks," said Isaac. "Better things to do." He turned back to the wreckage and dug through a pocket, finding the Lift Gem. He focused Psynergy on it, and then from it, taking hold of the fallen stones with Psynergy hands and lifting it away. Ivan came through, dusty but unharmed.
"Hey, you found the Djinni!" he said, happily. "Who are you, then?"
"Who are you?" asked Squall. "I see on you the blessing of Jupiter… could it be… Adept!"
"Yes?" asked Isaac, mildly.
"Why came you here?"
"Looking for some invisible guy's draught," he replied, arms crossed. "Not a fight."
"I see. You two are Adepts and adventurers. Very well. Name yourself, Jupiter Adept."
"Um… I'm Ivan."
"Squall Allies with Ivan!" The Jupiter Djinni spun and leapt into the air, turning into a comet of purple light that circled around Ivan and then dove into his chest. A moment later, Squall reappeared. On Ivan's head.
"I think it's built into them. Heads = good places to sit," Isaac suggested. Squall seemed uncertain, or preoccupied, as though she was reading through an invisible book filled with adventures and surprises beyond the contents of most lives.
"The Elemental Stars," she said at last. "All right, then. You think you can take these two Mars Adept upstarts, do you?"
"You sound different," Ivan noted.
"Like spindleshanks over there said. Djinni bravado."
"Spindle-what?" repeated Isaac.
"Yeah, we do," answered Ivan, ignoring his friend.
"I'm up for it, then," said Squall, and grinned indefinably. "Onward to glory and victory!"
"Thanks for the help, Ground," said Isaac, letting Ivan take the lead as they continued delving into the cave. "That was nasty."
"Battles with Djinn always are," said Ground, simply.
The tunnels returned to absolute darkness for a time, but not long after that they entered another, much smaller chamber that was properly lit with a couple of torches, and had five rocks on the floor. When the stones on either end were rotated, which they did with surprising ease, five lights grew on the wall, and it wasn't hard to see that they were created by Psynergy.
"I really want to know who's back there now," said Isaac as the pentagon of lights spun.
"Okay, so we spin the green rock. Um… which one's green, then?" asked Ivan.
"I would know?"
"You're the resident Venus Adept."
"These rocks are, in fact, the colours of the lights, are they?" asked Squall.
"Yeah, that's the idea. But it's hidden, so we'll have to guess…" muttered Isaac.
"Unless I'm way off fortress here, doesn't Ivan have Psynergy to deal with this sort of situation?"
Isaac and Ivan stared at each other for a moment. "Well, that should have been pretty obvious," said Ivan. "Reveal!" To Ivan's sight, the world around him turned to black and white, except for things with Psynergy in them, like Isaac, Squall, the lights on the wall… and the rocks, which were now vivid blue, green, white, yellow, and red. "Oh yeah."
"Although you just tried to kill me, I think I like you, Squall," Isaac commented while Ivan started spinning rocks all over the place while the lights on the wall rotated too. After the fourth twist, the lights spiralled together on the wall and flared brighter, then vanished, leaving only a door.
"Done. Let's get that draught and find out what's with the invisible old guy," said Ivan.
Garet stood in front of the Lucky Dice table and wondered, frantically, if he could escape without losing much more. Currently at the other end of the table was a man with a small, neat moustache, a mirthless grin and eyes, and most of what Garet had been carrying with him when he entered the building.
"Um…" said Garet, tentatively.
"Fine blade on this," said the man, looking closely at the Assassin's Blade, placed on top of the small heap of objects, as well as a good quantity of money in a coin purse. He noticed Garet's expression. "Oh, don't worry. Losing streaks can't go forever. Everyone starts off badly. After thirty or forty rolls, though, it starts to pick up again."
"Really?"
"Never fails. Every time. 'Specially with new players."
"Well…" said Garet, thinking that if he could win back even some of the various things he had already lost and then escape with all his clothes, he would build a hundred temples to Mars and be a better person for the rest of his life. "I guess…"
The doors to the Lucky Dice Emporium slammed open, letting in a bright glare of sunlight behind a dark silhouette. The cape swirled dramatically as the figure entered, slamming the door closed. Never before had the man seen a girl with blue hair and white robes, covered in drying mud, stalk into Lucky Dice and attempt to forcibly remove a player, but there was a certain aura around Mia that told him immediately that stopping her was a losing move.
"You great galumphing idiot, you think you can keep on gambling and win every time? If Corona didn't have the sense to find me-"
"Hold it," said the man, when Mia moved to retrieve Garet's lost bets, "you can drag him off if you want, but those were lost fair and square. They stay."
"You didn't get them by skill, I know that much," said Mia, not stopping. She handed several of the items over into Garet's unresisting arms, taking no notice of anyone else nearby.
"I said," the moustached man went on, "that he lost 'em, and you're not taking anything anywhere." Mia looked at him and wondered how long it would take to Frost a person to death. "'Course," the ever-grinning man went on, "you're welcome to try to win some back."
Mia paused, the Earth Shield in her hands, and thought. Venus was strongest in battle, Mars was strongest in body, and Jupiter was strongest in mind, everyone knew those. Where they went wrong was in thinking that Mercury's equivalent was healing. It wasn't.
It was luck.
"Very well," she said slowly, putting the shield back down. "How do you play this game?"
This sort of statement is a red flag to anyone with enough brains to pick up on literary tradition, because traditions have to start somewhere, and reality is often seen as a good place for this. Statements like 'how do you play this game' mean that a professional gambler is about to consider changing jobs to something less risky, like kraken wrestling.
"Oh… thank you…" gasped the hidden man, and took the bottle. The moment Isaac let go, the strange flask vanished, but he and Ivan could hear the sound of a long drink being taken, and then he stood. The figure was unsteady for a moment, but then stepped out into the light of the nearest torch. White static seems to crackle around him, and then, much as Isaac had expected, an old man appeared.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"An answer to that question would be long indeed. For now, let it suffice to say that I am Lord Babi of Tolbi," he responded with a touch of pride.
"Lord Babi?" repeated Ivan, remembering that Kelsey had mentioned the name. "If you don't… mind…" Ivan raised a hand and cast Mind Read, quickly gathering a few pieces of information.
"Users of Psynergy! Are you… Lemurians?" asked Babi, eagerly.
"Never heard of Lemurians. Sorry," answered Isaac. "Ivan?"
"I don't know who Lemurians are, but yes, this is Lord Babi, and he's the person the Tolbi Guard have been looking for," Ivan reported.
"I might have guessed. I've been careless with the draught recently, trying to stretch things out too much, hoping I can find Lemuria again…" Babi seemed to be talking more to himself than anything else, but looked back up a moment later. "My thanks again for finding the draught."
"Why is it so important?" asked Isaac, confused.
"It extends his life," replied Ivan.
"Yes! A bit of a simplistic answer, but true enough."
"How does it do that?" asked Isaac, feeling that everyone was keeping things from him.
"Lord Babi! Is that you? My lord?" called voices from further back in the cavern. The tunnel brightened as torch-bearing guards found the three. "Lord Babi! We have been worried!"
"Yes, yes," said Babi, waving the guards off. He looked back at Isaac and Ivan, and a strange light was in his eyes, an odd youth surrounded by ancient skin and white hair. A fiery youth that had been rekindled by something, though Isaac knew not what. "Fortunately, these two have already rescued me. They will come with us, Captain Tesselin. These boys and I have much to discuss back at my palace."
[Author's Notes] I know it's been a while, but give me a break, I wrote Shining in the Darkness in between these last two chapters. And now, before I can do Lost Age Redux, I must finish Tolbi Chapter. There's only one part left, though, Colosso, and anyone who knows A Knight's Tale should find it… amusing. Credit to the muse Phoenix, as always, and credit to anyone who hits that little review button down there. Go on. It'll be fun.